Mount Athos

In 961, The Great Laura, the first monastery on Mount Athos in northern Greece was built. By the 16th century there were twenty monasteries on the Greek mountain. The 3,000 monks living there forbade all females, whether human or animal, from setting foot on the Athos peninsular.
In 1775 Nicholas Kalliboutzes entered a monastic community on Mount Athos, taking the new name, Nicodemus. He devoted much of his time there to editing various writings about the theory and practice of prayer and his personally written books on spirituality were widely circulated. Arising from this, in the mid 1780s a spiritual revival broke out.